Climatic Implications Research Articles

Responses of sedimentary proxy indicators to lake-level fluctuations on the central Tibetan Plateau since the last deglaciation

Lake sediments are valuable archives to investigate past changes in climate and environment on various timescales. Closed-basin lakes can be regarded as precipitation gauges, which are ideal for studying past climate changes. However, the climatic implications of various sedimentary proxy indicators from closed-basin lakes are often confounded by lake-level fluctuations, which are affected by lake watershed processes, besides climate change. Here, we present records of multi-proxy indicators since the last deglaciation at Lake Cuoe, on the central Tibetan Plateau, which was once connected with Selin Co and became separated during the middle Holocene, as evidenced by a series of paleo-shorelines. The sedimentary proxies are categorized into three groups based on their origins, with differences in their environmental significance. The proxy indicators derived from within-lake processes effectively revealed past lake-level fluctuations, including the Ca/(Al, Ti, Fe) ratio, Fe/Mn ratio, carbonate minerals, stable carbon and oxygen isotopes of authigenic carbonate, and the percentage of aquatic inputs (Paq) derived from n-alkanoic acids. These proxy indicators showed obvious changes at ∼7–6 ka, when Lake Cuoe became hydrologically separated from Selin Co. The stable oxygen isotope record of Lake Cuoe, apparently modulated by lake-level changes, differs significantly from that from Selin Co. The proxy indicators reflecting watershed processes, including terrigenous elements, Rb/Sr ratio, grain size, and the chain length proxy based on n-alkanoic acids, directly reflected changes in the regional climate and environment. The proxy indicators derived from both allochthonous and authigenic sources, including total organic carbon (TOC) and total nitrogen (TN), reflected the effects of climate change as well as lake-level fluctuations. Overall, our results suggest that great caution should be applied in interpreting proxy records of climatic and environmental changes from closed-basin lakes on the Tibetan Plateau. They also highlight the potential of using sedimentary proxies to reconstruct continuous records of lake-level fluctuations.

Impacts of burn severity on short-term postfire vegetation recovery, surface albedo, and land surface temperature in California ecoregions.

Wildfire burn severity has important implications for postfire vegetation recovery and boundary-layer climate. We used a collection of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) datasets to investigate the impact of burn severity (relative differenced Normalized Burn Ratio, RdNBR) on vegetation recovery (Enhanced Vegetation Index, EVI), albedo change, and land surface temperature in seven California ecoregions, including: Southern California Mountains (SCM), Southern California Coast (SCC), Central California Foothills (CCF), Klamath (K), Cascades (C), Eastern Cascades (EC), and Sierra Nevada (SN). A statewide MODIS-derived RdNBR dataset was used to analyze the impact of burn severity on the five-year postfire early-summer averages of each biophysical variable between the years 2003-2020. We found that prefire EVI values were largest, and prefire albedo and temperature were lowest in the K, C, EC, and SN ecoregions. Furthermore, the largest changes between prefire and first-year postfire biophysical response tended to occur in the moderate and high burn severity classes across all ecoregions. First-year postfire albedo decreased in the K, C, EC, and SN but increased in the SCM, SCC, and CCF ecoregions. The greatest decreases, but most rapid recovery, of EVI occurred after high severity fires in all ecoregions. After five-years post-fire, EVI and land surface temperature did not return to prefire levels in any burn severity class in any ecoregion.

Variability and Trends of the Florida Current and Implications for the Future of the Gulf Stream

Pietrafesa, L.J.; Bao, S.; Gayes, P.T.; Carpenter, D.D., and Kowal, J.C., 2022. Variability and trends of the Florida current and implications for the future of the Gulf Stream. Journal of Coastal Research, 38(6), 1096–1103. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic Ocean Basin Western Boundary Current, plays a key role in moderating the climate of the North Atlantic Ocean Basin and surrounding landmasses. However, the Gulf Stream has been widely reported in the public media to be slowing down in its volumetric transport to the north, related to the reported weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. The recent exposé claims that the Gulf Stream may be in the throes of an irreversible collapse. This would have serious implications for the future climate of not only the United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia, the British Isles, and Europe, but for the entire planet, per se. In this study, investigations of the volumetric flux of the Florida Current took place that constitutes the formative beginning of the Gulf Stream at the Florida Straits to determine if there is evidence of a slowing of this major Western Boundary Current at the latitude of its beginning source. Findings include multiple, well-defined frequency and amplitude modulated internal modes of current variability in the 38-year record of Florida Current volumetric transport, ranging from weekly to monthly to seasonally to annually to interannually and decadal. The time series reveals an overall slowing of approximately 0.98×106 meters3/second (equivalent to approximately one Sverdrup), or a 2.795% drop over the nearly four past decades of daily observations.

Annual Report 2021

CAGE investigates the natural release of the greenhouse gas methane from the Arctic seafloor. Vast amounts of methane are trapped at shallow depths below the seafloor as gas hydrates, ice-like mixtures of gas and water. Current warming makes these shallow Arctic greenhouse gas reservoirs particularly vulnerable to thawing. CAGE investigates the processes involved, how these affect the ecosystem, the ocean and the atmosphere, and implications for future climate and environment.

Analysis of the Influence of Deforestation on the Microphysical Parameters of Clouds in the Amazon

Studies have shown that deforestation can cause changes in energy, moisture, and precipitation flows, with implications for local and regional climate. These studies generally focus on understanding how the hydrological cycle is impacted by deforestation, but few studies have investigated these impacts on cloud microphysics in tropical forest regions. The objective of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the impacts of deforestation on the microphysical parameters of clouds, based on data extracted from active and passive orbital sensors from the TRMM satellite. The study area comprised the state of Rondônia, Brazil. The analyses of the microphysical parameters extracted from the Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) sensors of the 2A-CLIM and 2A25 products were performed considering a period of 14 years. The parameters analyzed were Rain Water Path (RWP), Ice Water Path (IWP), Surface Precipitation (SP), Freezing Level Height (FH), and Rainfall Type (RT). Land cover type data were extracted from the Project to Monitor Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PMDA). Our results showed that local deforestation significantly altered the microphysical parameters of the study region. In general, the values of the microphysical parameters of the clouds in the transition areas (locations where forest pixels are neighbors to deforested pixels) were about 5–25% higher compared to forested and deforested areas associated with a higher frequency of episodes of convective rainfall possibly driven by mesoscale circulations. Correspondingly, forested areas had higher rainfall rates compared to deforested areas. Meanwhile, deforested areas had higher amounts for IWP, of around 1–16%, and FH, of around 2–8%, in relation to forested areas. Conversely, the RWP showed a decrease of around 2–20%. These results suggest that the microphysical structure of clouds has different characteristics when related to forested and deforested areas in the Amazon. This is useful for evaluation of simulations of cloud microphysical parameters in numerical models of weather and climate.

Climatic implication of stalagmite δ13C in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River since the Last Glacial Maximum and coupling with δ18O

The relationship between monsoon circulation and regional hydrology in the Yangtze River Basin since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) remains unclear. In this study, we present speleothem (LS46) δ18O and δ13C records over the past 23.5 kyr from the Luoshui Cave in Central China. Stalagmite LS46 δ13C displayed a good similarity with variations in δDwax-derived monsoon precipitation from Lake TengchongQinghai (TCQH) and the extreme precipitation events identified by the IRMsoft-flux from Heshang Cave, thus indicating that speleothem calcite δ13C reflects the changes in regional hydrology. The ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and wavelet spectrum analyses revealed that the regional hydrology was paced by ∼2000-year periodicity during the LGM and last deglaciation and ∼ 1000-year periodicity during the Holocene, respectively. Our results further indicated that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) plays an important role in regulating changes in the frequency and magnitude of regional hydrology in the Yangtze River Basin under different climatic conditions. Moreover, our results demonstrated that δ18O and δ13C were coupled on multiple timescales, thus potentially indicating that local hydrological variations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River are regulated by large-scale monsoonal circulation. However, we also found that the δ18O and δ13C profiles decoupled during the last deglaciation, likely due to a decrease in evapotranspiration in combination with a decrease in monsoon intensity and temperature during this period. Consequently, the regional hydrological conditions did not experience any dramatic changes.

The origin of carbonate mud and implications for global climate

Carbonate mud represents one of the most important geochemical archives for reconstructing ancient climatic, environmental, and evolutionary change from the rock record. Mud also represents a major sink in the global carbon cycle. Yet, there remains no consensus about how and where carbonate mud is formed. Here, we present stable isotope and trace-element data from carbonate constituents in the Bahamas, including ooids, corals, foraminifera, and algae. We use geochemical fingerprinting to demonstrate that carbonate mud cannot be sourced from the abrasion and mixture of any combination of these macroscopic grains. Instead, an inverse Bayesian mixing model requires the presence of an additional aragonite source. We posit that this source represents a direct seawater precipitate. We use geological and geochemical data to show that "whitings" are unlikely to be the dominant source of this precipitate and, instead, present a model for mud precipitation on the bank margins that can explain the geographical distribution, clumped-isotope thermometry, and stable isotope signature of carbonate mud. Next, we address the enigma of why mud and ooids are so abundant in the Bahamas, yet so rare in the rest of the world: Mediterranean outflow feeds the Bahamas with the most alkaline waters in the modern ocean (>99.7th-percentile). Such high alkalinity appears to be a prerequisite for the nonskeletal carbonate factory because, when Mediterranean outflow was reduced in the Miocene, Bahamian carbonate export ceased for 3-million-years. Finally, we show how shutting off and turning on the shallow carbonate factory can send ripples through the global climate system.

Can MCDA Serve Ex-Post to Indicate ‘Winners and Losers’ in Sustainability Dilemmas? A Case Study of Marine Spatial Planning in Germany

Multi-criteria decision analyses (MCDAs) have been developed to support and evaluate decision-making on multi-layered problems. The benefit lies in creating transparency, among other benefits, especially in tackling divergent stakeholder interests. Within the energy transition, area shortage can lead to sustainability trade-offs, calling for the reconciliation of planning processes and satisfactory compromises. While ex ante MCDAs complement planning, the ex post consideration of processes has been less widely studied. Using a case study of offshore wind energy (OWP) within German marine spatial planning, we investigated the shifting weights of sustainability criteria and stakeholder interests. A multi-criteria approach (Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment of Evaluations (PROMETHEE)) addressed how decision-making can be iteratively traced, and the winners and losers indicated in sustainability dilemmas, such as between climate and biodiversity implications. Findings illustrate that stakeholders are divided in the green-on-green dilemma. The ‘winners’ embrace the branches of energy and climate protection. It remains a question though for ‘losers’ how weighting decisions of sustainability goals can be detrimental, such as ‘good environmental status’, and what kind of balancing occurs. How compromises are found, such as through transparency and solid justification, is crucial in satisfactorily solving trade-offs for public interests. PROMETHEE makes revealing stakeholder constellations within policy dynamics feasible, though assuming there is the will to work multidisciplinarily within future planning decisions.

Seasonal and diel patterns of biogenic volatile organic compound fluxes in a subarctic tundra

In arctic and subarctic regions, rapid climate changes enhance biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions from vegetation, with potentially significant influence on atmospheric processes. However, the seasonal and diel patterns of bidirectional exchange (flux) of BVOCs remain poorly studied in these regions. Here, we deployed a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-TOF-MS) to investigate ecosystem-level BVOC fluxes over a growing season in a subarctic tundra heath in Abisko, Northern Sweden, and to quantify BVOC emissions from two widespread dwarf shrubs in the high latitudes, Salix myrsinites and Betula nana. As expected, ecosystem fluxes of short-chained oxygenated compounds (e.g., methanol, acetaldehyde and acetone) and terpenoids (e.g., isoprene, monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes) followed different seasonal and diel patterns. For the short-chained oxygenated compounds, net emissions dominated and peaked in the early growing season, while net deposition occurred sporadically, particularly at night. In contrast, terpenoids were almost exclusively emitted from the ecosystem, with maxima occurring in the peak growing season. At the branch level, these compound groups were emitted from both S. myrsinites and B. nana in clear diel patterns with high emissions during the day. S. myrsinites was dominated by isoprene emissions whilst B. nana was dominated by terpene emissions. Methanol, acetaldehyde and acetone were emitted at comparable levels and similar patterns from both species. Both ecosystem fluxes and branch emissions responded exponentially to enclosure temperature and depended on light levels. Compared to the BVOC emission models, however, the temperature responses were steeper for isoprene, monoterpenes, methanol and acetone, but weaker for sesquiterpenes. Apart from the well-known compounds, many other BVOCs, such as some carbonyls and nitrogen-containing compounds, were emitted from both the ecosystem and plants with significant contributions to the season variation in ecosystem fluxes. Overall, our study highlights the complexity of subarctic ecosystem BVOC fluxes, which vary both seasonally and diurnally. Vegetation composition changes triggered by climate change will shift BVOC composition, with important implications for atmospheric processes and local climate.

Spatiotemporal variations of chemical weathering intensity in large drainage basin and its potential climatic implications: A case study from the Yangtze River Valley

The knowledge on continental chemical weathering has a role in understanding carbon cycle and climate change. However, regional-scale spatiotemporal analysis of chemical weathering in large drainage basins is relatively seldom performed. In this study, based on 718 A- and C-horizon soil samples, we examined the spatiotemporal variations of chemical weathering intensity (i.e., the Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA)) in the Yangtze River Valley (YRV) by using trend surface analysis (TSA) and spatial correlation analysis (SCA). We found that: (1) the average CIA values of 68.4 and 68.5 for the A- and C-horizon soils reflect an overall intermediate chemical weathering in the YRV; (2) the weathering intensities follow a latitudinal distribution pattern that they increased from 50 to 70 in the north/northwest to 70–90 in the south/southeast of the YRV; (3) the general trend of chemical weathering is preferential leaching of Ca and Na over K; (4) TSA and SCA suggest a relatively dominant control of precipitation on the weathering intensity than temperature; (5) regions with frequent, long-duration and intense heavy precipitation (≥5 days/y and daily rainfall ≥50 mm) and heatwave (≥2 times/y, ≥15 days per time, and ≥ 40 °C) are featured with anomalous silicate weathering whose intensity was diminished from C- to A-horizon; and (6) the absolute differences of the mean CIA values between C- and A-horizon whether in the YRV or sub-regions were <1, indicating a stable silicate weathering. We conclude that significant latitude effect embodies the dominant control of monsoon climate on the chemical weathering in the YRV. Local climate extremes (e.g., rainstorms) are accompanied by anomalous silicate weathering. However, decreasing weathering intensity from bottom up does not necessarily indicate alleviated climate extremes, but probably the loss of terrestrial carbon stocks.

Surface phytolith and pollen assemblages of a low-latitude subtropical region in Southwest China and their implications for vegetation and climate.

Phytoliths, as a newly developing plant proxy, have broad application prospects in paleoclimate and paleoethnobotany. However, the shortage of studies regarding tropical-subtropical plants and topsoil phytoliths interferes with the research progress on primitive humanity’s utilization of plant resources and paleoclimate in the region. This research focuses on the subtropical mountainous region with a monsoon climate of low latitudes in Southwest China to conduct phytolith morphology analysis of living plants and phytolith/pollen assemblages of topsoil to reveal the indicative significance of vegetation and climate. A total of 111 species from 50 families, including 73 species from 33 tree/shrub families, 31 species from 12 herb families and 7 species from 5 fern families, were collected for morphological characteristics analysis, as well as 19 topsoil specimens for phytolith and pollen assemblage analysis. The results suggest that phytoliths are mainly deposited in situ, with assemblages of topsoil corresponding well with plant types in the quadrat and being able to exhibit constructive species in small regions. In comparison, pollen assemblages of topsoil dominantly respond to regional vegetation due to their long-distance transportation and widespread presence, in addition to their characteristics that correspond to the vegetation in the quadrat. The topsoil phytolith assemblages are mainly based on the elongate-bulliform flabellate-square/rectangle-broadleaf-types (including spheroid echinate), and the vegetation types indicate the subtropical climate. In addition, phytolith assemblages of Poaceae are dominated by collapsed saddle-bulliform flabellate square/rectangle-elongate-point, reflecting warm and humid conditions. The pollen assemblages mainly consist of Pinus, Betula, Alnus, deciduous Quercus, Euphorbiaceae, Rhamnaceae and Polygonum, reflecting tropical-subtropical plant communities and indicating warm and humid conditions. Overall, phytolith and pollen assemblages have unique characteristics and are thus explicitly representative of the low-latitude subtropical monsoon climate.

Measuring ocean mixing: From observing processes to quantifying impacts

The impacts of ocean mixing are varied, ranging from the local across-isopycnal transport of heat, salt, and nutrients, to the global overturning circulation with implications for climate. A full understanding of turbulent mixing, from driving processes to impacts, spans all oceanic time and length scales. Turbulent mixing in the ocean occur on scales less than centimeters and timescales less than hours, yet the processes that drive this turbulence occurs on meters to 100s of km length scales and the impact of the turbulent mixing spans the full range of oceanic spatiotemporal scales. Here, we will discuss current approaches to measuring ocean mixing and explore how to bridge this scale gap to link the turbulence measurements to the processes that drive ocean mixing and the subsequent impacts. Intriguing examples of ocean mixing processes and their influence on ocean dynamics will be discussed throughout.

Patterns of martian glacial deformation: Implications for glacio-geology, internal structure, and regional climate

Viscous Flow Features (VFF) are widespread in the martian mid-latitudes and indicative of near-surface ice deposits. Their distribution and morphology hint at the regional history of ice deposition and ablation, as well as changes in surface temperature. Here we interrogate the deformation history of a type of VFF, a Lobate Debris Apron (LDA), located in the eastern Hellas region, from its surface morphology, discussing the implications it poses for its internal structure and regional climate variability. Our observations integrate data from the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS), the SHAllow RADar (SHARAD), the Context Camera (CTX), the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), and the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA). Morphological observations, spectral analysis of characteristic wavelengths, and ice deformation stability analysis place constraints on the dynamics and deformation history of the deposit. We discuss contrasting hypotheses for the origin of the different surface structures, including the possibility of gelifluction in addition to glacial creep. Our results provide a guide to interpret glacial deformation patterns in martian VFFs in the light of internal structure, regional climate history, and underlying topography.

The Importance of Spatial and Temporal Scales in Understanding Chlorophyll Variability in the Southern Ocean

Polar regions are undergoing dramatic, rapid, and possibly irreversible changes. Substantial shifts in patterns of sea ice extent and thickness have cascading effects on polar ecosystems (including phytoplankton), with implications for carbon cycling and global climate. Phytoplankton growth is closely tied to environmental variables such as light and nutrient availability, which are sensitive to climate-induced changes in upper ocean circulation, stratification, and sea ice cover. Recently, Prend et al. (2022, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GB007329) investigated temporal and spatial scales of chlorophyll (a proxy for phytoplankton biomass) variability in the Southern Ocean. They demonstrated that the dominant temporal scale of variability is sub-seasonal (∼0.5–3 months). The implications of this are two-fold: first, climate oscillations (such as the Southern Annular Mode) are not major drivers of year-to-year variation in chlorophyll; second, intermittent bursts of chlorophyll, generated by small-scale processes such as storms and eddies, dictate the annual mean chlorophyll concentration. Additionally, spatial autocorrelation for chlorophyll concentration varied by time scale: seasonal chlorophyll variability was correlated over much larger areas than were variations in year-to-year chlorophyll concentration. Based on Prend et al. (2022, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GB007329), future work should be cognizant of (a) the spatio-temporal scales over which chlorophyll is averaged and (b) the need to focus on small-scale, sub-seasonal events (rather than large-scale climate oscillations) to mechanistically explain chlorophyll variability.

Molecular dynamic simulations of methane hydrate formation between solid surfaces: Implications for methane storage

Gas hydrates have essential industrial and climate implications in energy exploitation and novel technologies. Hydrate nucleation and growth typically develop under substrate-contact conditions; surface properties affect hydrate formation pathways. Microscopic insights into the effects of solid surfaces on hydrate formation would improve reservoir exploitation and the synthesis and regulation of promoters for hydrate-based methane storage. We thus performed microsecond-scale molecular dynamic simulations to investigate methane hydrate formation in CH4–H2O-substrate systems varying substrate surface hydrophilicity. The evolution of several parameters suggested that the methane storage capacity was controlled by the proportions of surface methyl and hydroxyl groups. The mutually coordinated guest (MCG) was a superior indicator of hydrate nuclei since it recognized all methane separated by water rings in hydrate structures. As surface hydrophilicity decreased, the size of the crystal nucleus shrank, and the amount of captured methane decreased; nevertheless, the nucleation pathways shifted from amorphous to crystalline. Moreover, given the crucial interactions between MCG/four-body order parameters and interaction energy/host-guest local distributions, the underlying mechanisms of hydrate formation were well-represented using two- and three-step microscopic models. Our findings show how solid surface properties influence multi-stage hydrate nucleation and will contribute to developing additives that efficiently promote hydrate formation.

The Role of Convective Up- and Downdrafts in the Transport of Trace Gases in the Amazon.

Deep convective clouds can redistribute gaseous species and particulate matter among different layers of the troposphere with important implications for atmospheric chemistry and climate. The large number of atmospheric trace gases of different volatility makes it challenging to predict their partitioning between hydrometeors and gas phase inside highly dynamic deep convective clouds. In this study, we use an ensemble of 51,200 trajectories simulated with a cloud-resolving model to characterize up- and downdrafts within Amazonian deep convective clouds. We also estimate the transport of a set of hypothetical non-reactive gases of different volatility, within the up- and downdrafts. We find that convective air parcels originating from the boundary layer (i.e., originating at 0.5km altitude), can transport up to 25% of an intermediate volatility gas species (e.g., methyl hydrogen peroxide) and up to 60% of high volatility gas species (e.g., n-butane) to the cloud outflow above 10km through the mean convective updraft. At the same time, the same type of gases can be transported to the boundary layer from the middle troposphere (i.e., originating at 5km) within the mean convective downdraft with an efficiency close to 100%. Low volatility gases (e.g., nitric acid) are not efficiently transported, neither by the updrafts nor downdrafts, if the gas is assumed to be fully retained in a droplet upon freezing. The derived properties of the mean up- and downdraft can be used in future studies for investigating convective transport of a larger set of reactive trace gases.

Atmospheric Particles Are Major Sources of Aged Anthropogenic Organic Carbon in Marginal Seas.

Deposition of atmospheric particulates is a major pathway for transporting materials from land to the ocean, with important implications for climate and nutrient cycling in the ocean. Here, we report the results of year-round measurements of particulate organic carbon (POC) and black carbon (BC) in atmospheric aerosols collected on Tuoji Island in the coastal Bohai-Yellow Sea of China (2019-2020) and during a cruise in the western North Pacific. Aerosol POC contents ranged from 1.9 to 11.9%; isotope values ranged from -18.8 to -29.0‰ for δ13C and -150 to -892‰ for Δ14C, corresponding to 14C ages of 1,235 to 17,780 years before present (BP). Mass balance calculations indicated that fossil carbon contributed 19-66% of the POC, with highest values in winter. BC produced from fossil fuel combustion accounted for 18-54% of the POC. "Old" BC (mean 6,238 ± 740 yr BP) was the major contributor to POC, and the old ages of aerosol POC were consistent with the 14C ages of total OC preserved in surface sediments of the Bohai-Yellow Sea and East China Sea. We conclude that atmospheric deposition is an important source of aged OC sequestered in marginal sea sediments and thus represents an important sink for carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Water droplets embedded with nascent carbon particles hold higher photo-thermal efficiency than aged ones

Our experiments quantified that warming potential (photo-thermal efficiency, η) of smaller and fresh submicron carbon particles (CP) in water-droplet is 3–5 times higher compared to that of larger and aged CP. Also collocated sea-salt enhances this effect to a larger extent. Such effects are crucial for high altitude and coastal urban environments respectively. It is because scavenged CP can trigger heating leading to cloud burn-off affecting the precipitation events. Further climatic implications have been discussed. Indeed, the parameter η of CP should be considered as an important inclusion to various climate models in the context of regional climate change.

Emotional healing as part of environmental and climate justice processes: Frameworks and community-based experiences in times of environmental suffering

This paper seeks to discuss the political role of healing practices in the context of climate and environmental justice struggles. We rely on literature and practices that have identified healing as a means for liberation from structural oppression and physical and symbolic violence, to humans, non-humans and nature – namely emotional political ecologies, transformative and healing justice and communitarian feminism. We also briefly discuss the experience of three collectives in Mexico, Colombia, and Spain who develop healing strategies as a way to emotionally support local communities exposed to territorial, environmental, and climate impacts and injustice. We argue that by further addressing the political dimensions of healing in environmental and climate justice, researchers, activists, and practitioners could expand the conceptualisation of (a) the spatial and temporal scales of climate justice by further engaging with the inter- and intra-generational emotional implications of environmental injustice, and (b) environmental and climate justice as a multidimensional and nonlinear collective emotional process.

Global tourism, climate change and energy sustainability: assessing carbon reduction mitigating measures from the aviation industry.

As many business activities—especially those associated with the energy-intensive industries—continue to be major sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and hence significantly contributing to global warming, there is a perceived need to identify ways to make business activities eventually carbon neutral. This paper explores the implications of a changing climate for the global tourism business and its intertwining global aviation industry that operates in a self-regulatory environment. Adopting a bibliometric analysis of the literature in the domain of global tourism and climate change (772 articles), the paper reveals the underlying sustainability issues that entail unsustainable energy consumption. The aviation industry as a significant source of carbon emission within the sector is then examined by analyzing the top 20 largest commercial airlines in the world with respect to its ongoing mitigating measures in meeting the Paris Agreement targets. While self-regulatory initiatives are taken to adopt Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) as alternative fuel production and consumption for drastically reducing carbon emission, voluntary alignment and commitment to long-term targets remain inconsistent. A concerted strategic approach to building up complementary sustainable infrastructures among the global network of airports based in various international tourist destination cities to enable a measurable reduction in carbon emission is necessary to achieve a transformational adaptation of a business sector that is of essence to the recovery of the global economy while attempting to tackle climate change in a post-COVID-19 era.